Asia Continues to Dominate Solar Module Output

The six biggest suppliers — thin-film leader First Solar, China's Suntech-Yingli-Trina solar triumvirate, Canadian Solar, and Japan's Sharp — each exceeded a gigawatt (GW) of production output, and collectively pumped out well more than 9 GW of solar panels last year, the analyst firm says. The top 10 module suppliers as a whole tallied about 12.5 GW of output, amounting to nearly half (44 percent) of the total global module production. Top ten 2011 solar module manufacturers in 2011, in megawatts and percent of global production. (Source: Lux Research) Moving up the list and worth noting, says Lux analyst Fatima Toor, are Japan's Sharp and South Korea's Hanwha, where interest in renewable energy has accelerated because of both the Fukushima nuclear disaster one year ago and increased competition from regional rival China. "Expect to see a major rise in market share from J...